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drvolts's profile
David Roberts
David Roberts
David Roberts
@drvolts

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David Roberts

@drvolts

I run a newsletter called Volts, about clean energy & politics. Subscribe & join the community at http://volts.wtf !

Seattle, WA
volts.wtf
Joined March 2009

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    1. David Roberts‏ @drvolts Feb 14

      So I would take a different turn than Matt took. I would say, if you are the kind of person who aspires to be rational, or who self-identifies as rational, the main danger you need to watch out for is not politesse but *self-deception*.

      4 replies 25 retweets 212 likes
      Show this thread
    2. David Roberts‏ @drvolts Feb 14

      People conspicuously proud of their rationality (and often, at a subconscious level, angered & ashamed by their emotional illiteracy) are some of the people *most likely* to ignore their own logical leaps, fallacies, & inconsistencies -- most likely to self-deceive.

      4 replies 28 retweets 164 likes
      Show this thread
    3. David Roberts‏ @drvolts Feb 14

      So if you are attracted to rationalism (as I am!), your primary obligation is not rudeness or insensitivity to group dynamics (you probably already have that covered) but ***humility***. You should be aware, at all times, that you too are probably falling short of True Reason.

      13 replies 29 retweets 239 likes
      Show this thread
    4. David Roberts‏ @drvolts Feb 14

      If you truly take that humility on board, then you take a different perspective on how to make human affairs & societies more rational. The answer is *not* for a handful of bros to train themselves to be Übermenschen, super-reasoners, & then lecture the rest of us.

      3 replies 11 retweets 113 likes
      Show this thread
    5. David Roberts‏ @drvolts Feb 14

      Once you acknowledge the frailty & fallibility of individual reasoners (yourself included), you realize that the most important collective task is to learn how to reason better *together*, how to develop practices & institutions that guide us toward reason.

      4 replies 15 retweets 150 likes
      Show this thread
    6. David Roberts‏ @drvolts Feb 14

      You realize no individual reasoner (or special group of "rationalists") is ever going to be reliable over the long-term. We're all human. The only hope is inscribing the practices & values of truth-finding into institutions that transcend any set of individuals.

      3 replies 6 retweets 104 likes
      Show this thread
    7. David Roberts‏ @drvolts Feb 14

      You also realize that unreason is never going to be banished by the Ultimate Bro Lecture. No person/institution/group ever perfectly instantiate reason. We're not going to evolve into a species of perfect reasoners. Irrationality is an ineradicable feature of human societies.

      4 replies 5 retweets 90 likes
      Show this thread
    8. David Roberts‏ @drvolts Feb 14

      Attempts to suppress or ban or stigmatize human parochial passions and group loyalties -- however technically irrational they may be -- will only result in tyranny & backlash. Attempts to engineer them out of ourselves will end in tears.

      1 reply 2 retweets 67 likes
      Show this thread
    9. David Roberts‏ @drvolts Feb 14

      So the best we can hope for is to adopt values & design institutions that *encourage* reason on the margins, that nudge us in that direction. We cannot suppress or eliminate parochial passions, so we must accommodate them, manage them, as best we can. Meliorism.

      1 reply 3 retweets 73 likes
      Show this thread
    10. David Roberts‏ @drvolts Feb 14

      And here we get to the central irony: if you truly understand humans, Reason leads you to support practices & institutions that, in their fuzziness, their accommodation of parochialism, their fallibility & partiality, *make self-styled rationalists uncomfortable*.

      1 reply 8 retweets 101 likes
      Show this thread
      David Roberts‏ @drvolts Feb 14

      Self-styled rationalists favor clarity, right angles, lack of ambiguity. But fuzziness & messiness are core parts of humanity that must be designed around. A world built by Reason, for actually existing humans, is not necessarily going to celebrate or elevate rationalists!

      1:19 PM - 14 Feb 2021
      • 9 Retweets
      • 121 Likes
      • Amelia Natoli Thomas Schmall tytyistooshort 🌹 Liz Schiller #DefundthePolice Lilac Librarian Grate Oracle Lewot Mackenzie Sharon Wong a catherine scorned
      5 replies 9 retweets 121 likes
        1. New conversation
        2. David Roberts‏ @drvolts Feb 14

          A world built by Reason will not be ruled by a council of tech bros. It will be small-d democratic, messy, iterative, flawed, humble, biased toward compassion over judgment. That's what's effective in actual human affairs -- ie, that's what's rational!

          7 replies 17 retweets 174 likes
          Show this thread
        3. David Roberts‏ @drvolts Feb 14

          In other words, if rationalists really cared about being rational, they'd become democratic socialists. Sorry this got so long. </fin>

          19 replies 12 retweets 193 likes
          Show this thread
        4. End of conversation
        1. Brendon Carpenter  💕 🗽 🇺🇸‏ @PinkoPatriot Feb 14
          Replying to @drvolts

          All hail Robertsian Meliorism! Yes, this viewpoint looks to correct the course of the journey towards reason. Humility must be an integral foundation of the rationalist mindset. Was it not Socrates that founded the Western pursuit of reason on his own foolishness?

          0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
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        2. Jenna Beacom, M.Ed‏ @jfbeacom Feb 14
          Replying to @drvolts

          I would pay good money to see you, @hankgreen and @BarackObama have some long discussions about these things. Hopefully resulting in some concrete ideas on how to make America better.

          1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
        3. David Roberts‏ @drvolts Feb 14
          Replying to @jfbeacom @hankgreen @BarackObama

          I'm ready whenever they are!

          1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
        4. Show replies
        1. Joseph Burns‏ @josalofilms Feb 14
          Replying to @drvolts

          THX 1138 is coming to mind. We don’t live well within abstract ideals, no matter how well-implemented.

          0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
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        2. кот бегемот‏ @rasin_simon Feb 14
          Replying to @drvolts

          This is the central disconnect I think. What to do about "actually existing humans". The bros you describe usually assume, explicitly or implicitly, that either 1) they would be able to convince the "existing humans" if lying SJWs weren't messing it all up or 1/x

          1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
        3. кот бегемот‏ @rasin_simon Feb 14
          Replying to @rasin_simon @drvolts

          2) the existing government should turn over its powers to the bros and the bros could then force the "existing humans" to comply. Both approaches are spectacularly inconsistent with human experience.

          0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
        4. End of conversation

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